After a stint as an ISP for several years we sold our interest in the ISP in July of 2003 to pursue our newly discovered passion – installing Cisco equipment and designing networks the way they should be. To mark this change in gears for us, the name of the company was changed to Enterprise Networks by Design, and in December of 2003 we achieved our Premier Certified Partner designation from Cisco Systems.

By March of 2004 Enterprise Networks by Design had achieved a specialization from Cisco Systems in IP Communications. This certification was achieved in only 3 months in a specialization that had just been announced 6 months previously. Needless to say we were fired up about Cisco and the next big thing in networking – IP Telephony.

Enterprise Networks by Design soon became a frequent choice for installing the Cisco IP Telephony and network infrastructure solutions. During the following 2 years Enterprise Networks by Design was chosen by SBC for most of its installations of the Cisco IP Telephony Solutions. Clients that utilized our services during that time included, Tri-State Engineering, Great Southern Bank, MaxSurg Medical clinics, and The Signature Bank of Arkansas to name a few.

In August of 2006 Enterprise Networks by Design ramped things up a bit and added a full sales force, added a Springfield office, and a St. Louis branch. To help differentiate ourselves from the market we added DaZZee Integrations to our name and the next phase in our growth had begun. With a full sales team on board, we quickly became the choice when it came to Cisco networking and IP Telephony solutions. At the end of 2006 DaZZee Integrations added some supporting products lines to fill in where Cisco may not have offered a product or solution. Those product lines included VMWare, EMC, Liebert Power Solutions, Dell, HP, Microsoft, and Axis Communications. In February of 2007 DaZZee expanded into the Northwest Arkansas region servicing the Fayetteville, Springdale, and Rogers areas.

DaZZee Integrations has stayed true to its core foundation in providing the best products, design, and expertise in network infrastructure and communication products. We have the most certified engineers that are local to our service areas of any other business in our line of work. In fact DaZZee Integrations has the same 3 engineers on board that is started with in the summer of 2003. We have since then hand picked our engineers to bring them in to our family. We are one of the few companies that actually employs a dedicated pre-sales engineer to make sure the time spent with our customers is used wisely and that all avenues of the solutions are explored. Our sales staff is also second to none. Our customers can rest assured that they are being offered the best products, solutions, and engineering services available and not just being pushed a product simply because it is what we sell.

While our name may have changed, our core strengths have never faltered. The size of our company may have changed a time or two, but the desire to give you the best solution with the best service available anywhere is still our passion. We care about what you need us to care about so that you can devote yourself to the projects that bring income to your bottom line.

We care about our clients and we are looking forward to having an opportunity to serve you as well!

Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) Trunking is a form of VOIP that some companies are using to save save money. There was a time that if you needed more than a handful of lines a company had to invest in a PRI or T1 connection. For those who have used that option I am certain you will how expensive and cumbersome that option can be. If you wanted a to run some lines you are bound to groups of 23. If you needed to add two more you would have to add an additional 24 to make that happen. You could invest in a partial PRI but that would still require you put the framework in place.  It requires a lot of planning and most often a lot more money than you would like to spend.

SIP trunking is an option that gives you flexibility and costs a fraction of what you would originally pay. You no longer have to run with groupings of 23, as a matter of fact you can even turn up temporary lines when you need them. This is something that would be unheard of with the traditional PRI. That’s right, if you have a big sales push and need 5 extra lines for a week you can turn them up and then when the push is over just turn them back down again. While a PRI might take up to a month to install SIP can be fired up in about a day in most cases. The great thing is you can save up to about half the cost when switching to SIP. With that cost savings you can put the funds toward improving your communications system or another project that needs the attention. In the meantime you look like a superstar for saving your company money!

DaZZee Integrations announced last Friday May 20th on their Small Business Technology Cruise that they are an official agent for Broadvox. This means that you can get your SIP service directly through DaZZee when you address communications changes or upgrades. DaZZee Integrations is always trying to find new solutions that will help your company expand it’s technology capabilities without breaking your budget.

If you have any questions regarding SIP Trunking call us today at 417-334-0494. We look forward to speaking with you.

What makes this revolutionary is that this appliance works with the VNX solution to migrate inactive files from your expensive to more cost effective off site or Cloud based storage. This makes things more efficient by putting your critical data close to you, but allowing you to keep the other data at hand when you need it.

With the Cloud Tiering Appliance being policy driven you find that the manpower hours are broken down because the labor to manage the data doesn’t have to always be there. All of the changes in information is done automatically! This frees you up to focus on the things that bring funds to the bottom line.

For full information about EMC’s solution please click here or call us at DaZZee Integrations we would be happy to help you find the right solution for your important data storage.

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As represented in the video things just get destroyed in the blink of an eye, and once that happens there is no time to go back and redo lapses in judgement especially when the loss of data is concerned. That is why it is crucial to have disaster recovery plans in place to make sure you are never at a loss for your data. What this also shows us is that data storage in house is a great idea, but in a case like this it may not be enough. Taking a set of tapes off site is a start but if your equipment is gone after a disaster you may be waiting to restore.

In best practice when looking into a backup solution you want something that will be there when you are ready to go back online and when at all possible it is best to take that off-site. If you don’t have an additional building available to you to create that Data Center then there are great alternatives. One such location we recommend is the Ozark Mountain Underground Complex. This is a highly secure facility with storage available for the largest Data Centers. If you are a SMB that needs a smaller plan that is available too. Rest assured that under that much rock your data is virtually untouchable by the elements.

Cloud services are also available to keep your data safe.The key to this thought is where your data is kept. Some large services have Data Centers all over the world. For some that is not an issue, but for others that may well be a concern. This is always a good question to ask when looking into providers. If you have questions in that regard we are happy to assist.

When you are looking for product to build your Data Center consider all options carefully. There are solutions that include a hybrid Cloud and Hard Disk backup. Cisco Systems SmartStorage solutions give you the best of both worlds in that area. There are also great options with EMC, Dell and HP as well.

We want you to know that whatever method you choose DaZZee Integrations has experts in all facets and would be happy to assist you with those Disaster Recovery needs. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us and we will be happy to assist you.

The topic for this cruise will be Small Business Communications for a New Economy and we will be discussing and demonstrating the Cisco UC500 solution. Cisco has revolutionized communications in business and has created a solution that will truly benefit you and your organization. We will discuss three ways your business can increase productivity, cut expenses, and gain a competitive edge in our new economy.

The cruise will begin at 2:15 in the afternoon and will to about 4:15. Sweet tastes will be provided by Pastries by Carla, and we will also be taking in the Fire and Water Show on the Branson Landing. This will be a great time to relax and meet with other professionals in the SMB community.

Seats are limited to this special event that promises to be a great time for all that attend. Make sure you get your spot on the boat by going to www.DaZZee.com and click on the invitation link. If you would prefer to call you can reach us at 417-334-0494. We look forward to seeing you there!

IT Supports Your Business
Unfortunately, most small businesses are in a “break and fix” mode when it comes to information technology, but a broken system could devastate your company’s reputation and profitability by shutting down productivity. When hardware isn’t configured properly, servers are too small, connectivity is the wrong strength, or maintenance isn’t handled in a timely manner, you could end up spending invaluable hours correcting problems caused by untimely efforts. The mindset of, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” is not applicable in the field of IT.  Your business objectives could suffer greatly if errors aren’t caught early.

Prevention is Key
Physical viruses can shut you down for weeks at a time, so we all do everything we can to avoid illness. The same should be true for your computer network. Unfortunately, your employees aren’t always aware of issues that could possibly cause a system failure nor are they timely in alerting you or your IT department of issues with their computer system. That being said, if your computer network were to get a virus, it could destroy or data and records crucial to the function of your organization.  Virtual IT can help you by setting up utility services that monitor your computers and network functions, alerting you to unreported problems and scheduling periodic system scans.

Ditch the Downtime
Regular maintenance is required to avoid downtime; yet understanding the needs of your system requires an expert. Managed IT solutions provides remote trouble shooting and reporting, making you aware of necessary updates and possible issues BEFORE they cripple your network. It also offers you the simplicity of opening support tickets as issues arise, immediately notifying your Virtual IT providers of problems and allowing you a place to reference the ticket and see what steps have been made to rectify the trouble.

The overall solutions Virtual IT provides ultimately saves companies money, time and headaches. It’s an opportunity for small to medium sized businesses to manage their IT needs with expert engineers and business computer support without adding a significant overhead.  But, don’t take our word for it. Watch a video testimonial on how DaZZee’s Virtual IT services helped one company with their small business.

Image via CrunchBase

If pictures are worth 1000 words than this video will cover most anything I can say about the concept of Virtualization. Thanks to our partners at VMWare for providing such good information.

When it comes right down to it Virtualization will be a benefit to you in many ways. I want to take a moment and lay that out briefly.

Time

When you spend the time implementing virtualization to your infrastructure you save yourself an abundance of time in the long run. When a server goes down now you are forced to rebuild that server and see if there is any way you can recover any critical data from that crash. With Virtualized Servers they are replicated as they run allowing for an immediate restoration of your server. It simply just steps in and takes up where that other server left off.

Resources

Server Virtualization in a nutshell allows you to get the most out of every physical server you have on your network. If you are running an application like Outlook on a server often times there are other applications that won’t work side by side with Outlook. In the regular setting you have to put that application in it’s own dedicated server. In the Virtualized setting you put Outlook in a Virtualized server it has no idea it is playing with other applications. Thus, you use the whole physical server, and no resources are wasted.

Energy

In the standard setting where there is no virtualization you use many servers to run different applications you have power each box. The cool thing about the Virtualized setting is that you are combining many applications into seperate virtual servers on one physical server. When this happens you have drastically reduced the power usage of servers.

When you replace desktop machines you do the same thing. A Virtualized Desktop is kept on a server with many other Virtual Desktops and all of the work that a desktop box is doing is now being done by a small solid state box attached to a monitor. This uses a fraction of the energy the desktop system was using. All of this reduces your Carbon Footprint drastically.

All Summed Up

When you take the time to Virtualize you save Time, Resources, and Energy; when you put all these savings together you will find that you have saved your company large amounts of MONEY. Many times your ROI is realized within the first couple of years. Many companies have found that there are also Green Initiative Funds available to make such moves. When you save that kind of money perhaps your budget sees an overflow in the coming years.

If you have any questions about Server and Desktop Virtualization please contact us at DaZZee. We have certified engineers ready to discuss with you how Virtualization can benefit you and your company. We look forward to speaking with you.

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Image via Wikipedia

Because of the way the economy has moved in the past few years it is more critical than ever to be more shrewd with our Information Technology budgets. We want to make sure we squeeze every last drop of value out of our money we set aside to put toward our Technology needs. When we make decisions I believe these points should be considered.

Holding Onto Old Gear Doesn’t Necessarily Save Money

When you are looking at your network if you are stuck doing the same thing you always did because your gear is limited you may be forced further behind your competition. Always remember, often the one considered crazy for spending the money before a competitor is often referred to as a pioneer and seen as the guy who paved the way to a certain opportunity. Educate yourself and ask questions before you drop cash on a solution.

Make Sure You Have Room to Grow

Any solution that you have should never be maxed out when you buy is. Always buy a solution that is scalable. Heaven forbid your company takes off and you outgrow your original plan before you wanted to. Your vendor isn’t always just trying to make more money when he offers a bigger solution for you. Scalability is key when making IT budgeting decisions.

Virtualize Whenever Possible

It’s working for every major Top 100 grossing company so I am not sure that the investment is ever a bad thing. There are many professionals in the area that will help you get there if you are unfamiliar (DaZZee for instance). As an IT administrator your job will simplify drastically once it is in play. Don’t miss out simply because it is not something you understand. In the long run it will save you energy, time and resources and all of that will save you MONEY.

All of these concepts are practical and obviously not earth shattering, but they are good reinforcement when you are looking into new technology.  As always, I am happy to answer any questions you might have and I can do my best to point you in the right direction. DaZZee Integrations is dedicated to bringing you the best solutions for your company with the best service available anywhere. We look forward to hearing from you.

EMC has been one of the leading solutions in Data Storage for a long time yet they raised the bar. Many businesses looking for Data Storage have been concerned with the pricing and that the solution wouldn’t be cost effective for their company. Well, EMC listened and created something that would work with your company regardless of he budget. Pound for pound, the EMC VNX family of SAN solutions beats the competition hands down.

EMC took the best out of a few of their SAN solutions and combined the technology to create one terrific option for any organization with data that is too critical to lose. They have also made the VNX family simple to use with the single control panel to make management less daunting.

Don’t let he fact that they have gone out of their way to make the VNX line cost effective and simple fool you; this solution can hold its own in any Data Canter. With virtualizarion being used so frequently in today’s network infrastructure the VNX line is ready to handle VMWare and Hyper V with the best because it is optimized to do just that.

The nice thing about the VNX line is that it is also quite scalable. The ability to add to this unit is a great feature. It will also work hand in hand with other SAN solutions in the EMC family. It’s nice when a company creates something that can be expanded to avoid a frequent fork lift rebuild.

Plain and simple, VNX is a great solution for any company that is looking for a great storage solution that won’t tax your budget. DaZZee Integrations is a proud partner with EMC and looks forward to assisting you with any questions you may have. Whether you are a small company looking at Data Storage for the first time or a seasoned IT professional looking to add to their existing SAN bank we have professionals ready to assist you. We look forward to working with you.

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The IT staff can vary in size and experience for any small to medium sized business; whatever the size you rely on them to make the best decisions for your company.  The hard thing to know is how to best support that staff from your role as an Owner or CEO. There are a lot of facets to the IT industry and it’s really easy to get bogged down by sheer workload or the burden of keeping up with the learning curve needed to stay up with the latest technologies. It is always a challenge for an IT staff person regardless of their level of experience to stay in line with all that is happening in the industry. It is important to give them the tools they need coupled with the time to make certain they have the opportunity to grow with the job.

There are a couple areas in which DaZZee Integrations can assist in this daunting task. DaZZee spends many hours to insure that their Engineers have the latest knowledge on the cutting edge technologies they sell and support. When you are putting a special solution in play that requires an extra skill set to initiate we have the ability to assist you in that task. We can also make sure that your staff is able to get up to speed on what is required to operate this solution each day. We will use our resources to make sure that you have what you need to be sucessful.

The other thing that DaZZee can do for you revolves around our Managed Services program. When the day to day maintenance on your network gets large enough it is hard for your IT staff to focus on “Big Picture” projects that brings money to the bottom line of your ledger. DaZZee Integrations Managed Services Solution is put in place so that we can make sure those day to day tasks are taken care of so your IT staff can work on the major projects. If you are thinking of hiring additional IT staff you may want to consider this as an option as well. Hiring DaZZee to handle Managed Services gets you access to several certified engineers to add to your brain trust as opposed to hiring one person. The majority of the time you can hire DaZZee for over 50 percent less as well.

DaZZee is always available for consultation, and right now we are also offering a free network assessment to assist you in finding the most effective solutions for your business. DaZZee’s client base has found they saved substantially on their IT costs (up to 40%). If we can save you money we will let you know, and there is no pain to find out.

Please visit us at DaZZee.com to find out more about what we offer and book your FREE network assessment today! We looks forward to giving you the best service you will find in an IT company in this region.

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